An early rebound goal by the Gators' Lauren Whitney stood up, and 4A Centaurus fell 1-0 in the nonleague contest despite a late onslaught of chances.

"We had a lot of last-minute injuries when we came to do the warmups, so we were subbing everybody," Warriors coach Mario Bezzina said. "We were throwing bodies in there just to have 11 on the field."

The Warriors knew Lauren Esler (hip) would be out and might miss a few weeks. That was a big enough blow, considering Esler has matched Shanlie Anderson with a team-best five goals.

But then midfielder Kayla Matino and outside defender Kelsey Wood tried to warm up before being pronounced unfit to play. Then Wood's replacement, Gaby Fuentes, suffered a back injury during the game and defender Anna Rinaldi also briefly went down.

"We told them to just get through it without any more injuries, because obviously next week we have some good league games," Bezzina said.

The Warriors (5-3-1) unsurprisingly started slow and allowed the Gators (5-2-2) to take five corner kicks in the opening 12 minutes. The last of those was the precursor to Whitney's goal.

"When we start off slow like that, they're going to get opportunities," Centaurus center midfielder Midori Patterson said. "They're goal was well-deserved with them controlling the beginning of the game, but I think we definitely picked it up in the second half."

Patterson had a few scoring chances of her own as the Warriors played the Gators pretty evenly through the second half. They could never find the equalizer, however, as Gators freshman keeper Nicole Brock was on point.

Centaurus goalie Kelly Turcotte (five saves) also played admirably but didn't have any wiggle room with the Warriors being shut out.

"It was disappointing to control it like we did in the second half and not finish," Patterson said. "But they're a good team."